Goodbye, Labubu! Kay Bojesen is coming for the bag charm crown

A playful detail has captured the fashion crowd’s hearts – and purses – as bag charms emerged as the accessory du jour last year, a trend that’s carrying strongly into 2026, too. Whether it’s a sweet plushie, sleek designer hardware or a miniature book, as seen aplenty on the New York Fashion Week street stylers, bag charms are a quick and easy way to inject, well, charm, personality and a dash of fun into your look.

​If 2025 went down as the year of the Labubu, the grinning, furry creature dangling from many a handle, this year brings a fresh slate of charming companions to clip onto your favourite bag, including those of Kay Bojesen. The Danish design brand, founded by the late, celebrated designer Kay Bojesen, whom we’ve featured on our pages, has just introduced a smile-inducing lineup of bag charms, transforming Bojesen’s iconic animal-inspired wooden figures into covetable accessories.

Related: Uncovering the treasure trove of Danish design behind the iconic wooden monkey

Fittingly, as the seasons begin to shift and birdsong soon fills the air – a quintessential sign of spring – the brand’s newest bag charm collection spotlights birds. Meticulously crafted from oak and rendered in subtle shades of pink, green, orange and blue, the designs reimagine Bojesen’s beloved ‘Songbird’ figurine as an accessory. Finished with leather straps, a silver-toned carabiner, and extra key rings, in addition to adorning your bag, the pieces possess various styling options: cradling your keys, clipping to your wallet, or hanging from your belt loop.

​Initially designed in the 1950s, the ‘Songbird’ figurines were inspired by a flock of feathered creatures fluttering around Bojesen’s backyard. The designer reinterpreted them in wood through his playful, vibrant lens. While Bojesen began his career as a silversmith, his pivot into woodworking stemmed from a rather practical and loving cause: “I have a son who gets more toys than you can possibly imagine from family and friends. However, the sad fact is that he is a strong and heavy-handed little guy, and the toys quickly break in his fingers,” he once explained.

Related: Feathers are the latest street style addition to set our hearts a-flutter

​Since Bojesen opened his now-shuttered store and studio in Copenhagen in 1932, his whimsical wooden figurines have spread their joy across the globe, becoming more than merely well-crafted toys. “His wooden figures and animals were never intended to mimic living beings. Instead, they were made to be charming, vivid, wooden interpretations with strong personalities and a unique look and feel that appeals to the inner child,” Tine Casper, the head of design at Rosendahl Design Group, the company that continues to produce Bojesen’s toys today, told Vogue Scandinavia. The new bag charms let you carry a piece of classic Danish design wherever you go.